St. Joseph’s Indian School prints faux postage on BRE and outer cover
My wife received a rather unusual piece of nonprofit mail from St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota, earlier this week, and it caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, at 14″×11″ in size, this envelope is really large for a nonprofit mailing.
Oversized St. Joseph’s Indian School cover
Second, there are three stamp-sized images picturing a sunflower, a leaf, and an illustration of apples where you would expect postage to be affixed.
Preprinted sunflower, leaf, and apple designs on St. Joseph’s Indian School cover
In addition to a variety of inexpensive tools and trinkets, the mailing also included a business reply envelope with three identical copies of a preprinted stamp-sized design captioned “Wild Flowers.”
St. Joseph’s Indian School business reply envelope with preprinted flower designs
I have to admit that the outer cover was a bit of a surprise. If you’ve been following along for any length of time, you know this isn’t the first envelope with imitation postage printed on it that my household has received, but such items seem to be much less common than their BRE cousins. It’s an interesting piece, and I doubt many like it will be saved.
This update contains spaces for all United States postage stamps issued from June through August, as well as this year’s federal hunting permit or duck stamp, and the new pages are ready for you to download and print at your convenience.
As always, thank you for your support and your interest in The Philosateleian!
Last week, I received a mailing from Christopher that contained two covers bearing some of his local post stamps. One features an American Air Mail Society cachet, and the other a Washington Stamp Collectors Club cachet, both of which Christopher created for Boston 2026.
Columbia Pike Express Company 75¢ airplane stamp on coverColumbia Pike Express Company $1 Great Smoky Mountains stamp and 95¢ mail train stamp on cover
Although I do create my own local post stamps, I don’t consider myself much of an artist, but Christopher’s cachets are very, very nice indeed. And it’s always nice to receive “stamp mail”!
Bat’s Private Post celebrates 20th anniversary of operations
Beverly Hills-based Bat’s Private Post earlier this month celebrated its 20th anniversary with the release of a set of 11 commemorative stamps.
Each of the stamps issued August 18 features the local post’s namesake bat. The face values ranging from 5¢ to $10 are intended to meet various Bat’s Private Post fees.
Bat’s Private Post 20th Anniversary stamps
According to an accompanying announcement, the new stamps were printed and perforated by The Portland Stamp Company.
Bat’s Private Post is not the first private local post to reach 20 years—my own Philosateleian Post reached that mark in 2024, and New Hampshire’s Purgatory Post celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021—but it’s quite a milestone. Congratulations to Bat’s!
Talking local posts on the Birth. Stamps. Death. podcast
I’ve been operating Philosateleia for a long, long time—over 20 years, in fact. Philosateleia got a write-up in Linn’s Stamp News nearly a decade ago, and there have been a couple of blog posts mentioning my site, but for the most part, it has just been communications between you (my reader) and me.
Earlier this month, however, I was honored to be a guest on the Birth. Stamps. Death. podcast episode titled The Wonder and Whimsy of Local Posts. Podcast cohost Christopher Putney (whose Columbia Pike Express Company I mentioned in a a July blog post) invited me to discuss local posts in general and how I got started with Philosateleian Post in particular.
I had a blast.
Seriously, it’s not unusual if I mention that I create my own local post stamps to get a quizzical look and a, “Why?”—and that’s from a lot of stamp collectors, not just from the general non-collecting public. But the local posting bug has bitten Christopher hard. He and his guest cohost Sydney were excited to talk about this little corner of the hobby, and I was, too.
I want to thank Christopher and his regular cohost Sam for giving me the opportunity to participate in their podcast. Please check out the podcast and the previous Birth. Stamps. Death. episodes. Neat stuff!
